in message Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg announced to employees that the company will reduce the size of its entire workforce by 10 percent. This means Boeing will cut about 17,000 jobs, including executives and managers, over the next few months. Ortberg, who only took the helm in August, said the company needed to “make structural changes” to “remain competitive” and be able to serve customers over the long term. .
Ortberg announced the upcoming job cuts amid a machinists’ strike that halted production at most of Boeing’s factories, including those that make the best-selling 737 Max plane. Approximately 33,000 union machinists are participating in the strike, which has been ongoing since mid-September. as AP This has had a major impact on Boeing’s pockets, the company said, as it receives payment for half of the price of the plane after fulfilling customer orders.
In addition to the layoffs, Ortberg announced that Boeing is delaying development of the 777X aircraft due to challenges it faced during development and ongoing work stoppages. The company currently plans to deliver its new wide-body jet in 2026 rather than 2025.
In early 2024, Boeing had to ground some Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 planes after a door plug blew off mid-flight. No injuries were reported, but the Boeing plane had only been in service since November last year. In July, the company agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Boeing also suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as a result of Starliner’s delayed return from the International Space Station. The company’s first manned flight was scheduled to last only a few days, but hardware problems prevented it from completing as originally scheduled. In the end, Starliner returned to Earth several months later without the astronauts who had originally flown to the space station. The crew is scheduled to return home aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule next February.
